Not all clear phones are created equal – some turn out way better than others.
And this is a story of one clear Razer Phone that didn't turn out so well.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
So usually when I get brand new phones, like this Razer Phone 2, I'm one of the first people
to try and take them apart.
Since manufacturers generally frown upon dissecting phones, or fixing your phone yourself, there
is zero instruction on how it's done.
Initially I thought that this year's Razer Phone would be similar to last year's Razer
Phone, and we would initiate the teardown from the large earpiece.
Turns out, that earpiece doesn't have any screws behind it this year, and it's completely
unnecessary to remove.
So let's just plop that grille back into place and pretend it didn't happen.
Perfect.
Let's start over.
To open up the Razer Phone 2 we start from the back using a heat gun.
On this phone, the glass is a totally flat slab.
Glass is still fragile, of course, so I'm being extra cautious around the corners, using
my razor blade to slice into the Razer Phone – slightly ironic.
The razor cuts the thin band of watertight adhesive around the inner edges.
Once it's all sliced, the full slab of glass can pull away from the device, revealing the
large black wireless charging coil in the center, and the wide LED pad for the Razer
snake logo right below those dual cameras.
At first glance, it's not as interesting inside as some of the other clear phones I've made,
but maybe this minimalist Razer vibe will still turn out good.
I'll remove the dual cameras lens bracket that has these same black adhesive holding
it to the rear glass panel.
Then the black material applied to the underside of this glass appears to be the same scratchable
coating we saw on the Pixel 3.
Meaning that instead of pulling it off in one satisfying layer, the whole thing needs
to be scratched off, slice by slice, bit by bit.
I'm going to try to leave the Razer logo intact this time around, since the glow effect of
the LEDs on the back panel is kind of what makes this phone stand out.
It looks like the snakes are stuck on with the same fragile coating as the rest of the
glass, so cutting around them is going to be rather tedious.
But it does give me plenty of time to think of more super funny phone jokes like this
one:
Why did the cell phone start wearing glasses?
Because it lost all of it's contacts.
The hardest part of this whole project is the logo in the center, trying to keep that
clean and neat while scratching off all the black paint around it.
The good news is that the surface of the glass panel is harder than my razor blade, so there
are no razor scratch marks on the surface of the glass.
My fingers, on the other hand, are softer than the razor blade, but who needs all 10,
right?
In the end though, I was relatively successful in clarifying the back glass panel.
It looks pretty slick...and no slices on my fingers.
Thumbs up for that.
I just wish the stuff underneath the glass, inside the phone was more interesting to look
at.
A little bit of glass cleaner to get rid of any smudges.
Then I'll set the camera lens into place directly over the cameras, and then rest the glass
panel back into the Razer.
It's definitely unique looking.
I think this is one of those cases where a pure transparent glass back might not be the
best option.
It might just need a more semi-transparent gradient blend of black and neon green on
the glass.
And, of course, a more interesting looking wireless charging coil.
The Razer Phone might just be one of the few phones that doesn't look good naked.
What do you think?
It's pretty hard to follow up with the fantastic looking Pixel 3.
Maybe I'll just put one of my extra skins on the back to make it look normal and pretend
it never happened...again.
Nailed it.
I'll still be tearing down the Razer Phone 2 to check out the inner liquid cooling vapor
chamber and to see if they upgraded their tiny vibrator this year.
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And thanks a ton for watching.
I'll see you around.